Can't Wait Wednesday #11: No Good Deed by Kara Connolly

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings to spotlight and talk about the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally they're books that have yet to be released. It's based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous Jill at Breaking the Spine.  I've picked a retelling this week, this time of the Robin Hood story.  Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

Fans of Dorothy Must Die will love this reimagining of the legend of Robin Hood. Girl power rules supreme when a modern girl finds herself in the middle of a medieval mess with only her smart mouth and her Olympic-archer aim to get her home.

Ellie Hudson is the front-runner on the road to gold for the U.S. Olympic archery team. All she has to do is qualify at the trials in jolly old England. When Ellie makes some kind of crazy wrong turn in the caverns under Nottingham Castle—yes, that Nottingham—she ends up in medieval England.

Ellie doesn’t care how she got to the Middle Ages; she just wants to go home before she gets the plague. But people are suffering in Nottingham, and Ellie has the skills to make it better. What’s an ace archer to do while she’s stuck in Sherwood Forest but make like Robin Hood?

Pulled into a past life as an outlaw, Ellie feels her present fading away next to daring do-gooding and a devilishly handsome knight. Only, Ellie is on the brink of rewriting history, and when she picks up her bow and arrow, her next shot could save her past—or doom civilization’s future.  

Do you like retellings?  How does this one sound to you?  What book are you eagerly awaiting this week?

Waiting on Wednesday: Yellow Brick War (Dorothy Must Die #3) by Danielle Paige

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases that we're eagerly awaiting.  My choice this week is the third book in a series that was such an original story.  It wasn't quite what I expected, but it still was a great, unique story.  I just listened to the 2nd book a month or so ago.  So it is pretty fresh in my mind and I'll be ready to read it when it comes out!  Here is the blurb from Goodreads:  

In this dark, action-packed third book in the New York Times bestselling Dorothy Must Die series, Amy Gumm—the new girl from Kansas—must do everything in her power to save Kansas, kill Dorothy, and make Oz a free land once more.

Amy Gumm’s mission to take down Dorothy Gale is not going according to plan. Dorothy has found a way to bridge the worlds of Oz and Kansas, and if the power-hungry dictator of Oz has her way, Kansas will be destroyed forever. Now, Amy has to team up with the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked to save her home, restore the balance between the magic and nonmagic worlds, maybe get the guy—and kill that not-so-sweet Kansas farm girl once and for all.

In the third installment of the New York Times bestselling Dorothy Must Die series, Danielle Paige’s twisted versions of beloved Oz characters are back, including the biggest, baddest, most famous of all: the Wicked Witch of the West.

Welcome to the other side of the rainbow. Here there’s danger around every corner, and magic shoes won’t be able to save you.

Have you read this series yet?  What book are you eagerly awaiting this week?  While you're here, make sure to go enter my giveaway for a finished copy of Titans by Victoria Scott.

Audiobook Review: The Wicked Will Rise (Dorothy Must Die #2) by Danielle Paige

This was the next audiobook I chose to listen to.  I had owned a copy of the book, but traded it for something I couldn't wait for awhile back.  So I had to borrow the audiobook from my public library.  It was a pretty good story. The narrator did a good job with different voices and keeping it interesting. As most second books seem to be in trilogies, it was what I call a "road trip" book.  Now, my review of this will probably, no definitely have spoilers if you haven't read the first book.  So in that case, you should just stop reading now, and go read my review of the first book, Dorothy Must Die. 

This book picks up basically where the last one left off.  The main character, Amy Gumm, failed in her mission to kill Dorothy.  She was able to get the Tin Woodsman's heart though, which was one of the things the Wizard told her she would need to be able to actually kill Dorothy.  In the battle, she lost sight of the rest of the witches in the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked, included her friend Nox.  Probably the one thing she is glad to have done is save the Princess Ozma.  Even if she isn't much help in her dazed and confused state.  Amy and Ozma get some help getting away from their friends the wingless monkeys, who got paper wings from the Wizard just for this mission.  And they get close to the monkeys' village when they run into the Lion.  And somehow, Amy must get his courage from him, another ingredient needed to kill Dorothy. The way that she does it, well, that is a surprise!  And then they are taken into the village high up in the trees where the monkeys live now.  While there, Amy discovers a secret about Ozma, and the boy named Pete that she'd seen back at the Palace in Emerald City.  Mombi shows up beat up and exhausted.  She tells Amy that she must talk to someone named Polychrome, who lives in the land of the rainbows. 

So part of the book takes place in a land of rainbows.  It is on this journey that she will find Nox again.  And together they must try to figure out how to stop Dorothy.  Only Glinda and Dorothy will not fight fair.  And they will soon find out that there is something peculiar between Dorothy and Amy, something that makes it really hard to kill each other.  And the Wizard, we'll finally find out what he's up to.  And you'll know whether he can be trusted, or if he has a plot worse that what Dorothy has! 

Another cliffhanger of an ending, and the big battle will still be coming in the third book!

Again, such fun with all the different places being created for the story.  I kind of want to smoke a rainbow cigarette, even though I'm very anti-smoking.  :-)

A to Z April - X: EXtras

One plus I would definitely say about e-books, is that there seems to be a plethora of short stories that are so much easier to get a hold of since you no longer have to wait until a compilation of short stories is released.  And today they are called novellas a lot of the time, and are often stories in between or before a series of books even started.  It is often neat to me to find out how things in a dystopian world became that way, since it often doesn't get into the nitty gritty details in the actual full length stories sometimes.  I also enjoy when an author does a little spin off with a minor character that may have stood out and I really would like to know more about them and their own story.  So below I will list 5 novellas that I think were of great added value to the stories they go with.


1.

 

Now this is the one I read the most recently, so is the freshest in my mind.  But, it was such a great prequel to the book Dorothy Must Die.  As I read the actual book, I wondered what had happened to make Dorothy such a bad person, and why was  Glinda not the good witch we remembered?  You learn quite a bit, about Dorothy mostly, in this really great prequel.

2.

 

Now this is actually a printed book, with 3 short stories in it.  But, it was an e-galley of this that I read. I had received the book The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa when I went to BEA in the summer of 2012.  But I had yet to pick it up, mainly because while I knew she was a popular author, I hadn't read anything of hers, and wasn't quite sure about it.  I read the short story in here, Dawn of Eden, which is a prequel to the story, and I was sold.  The writing, the plot, all of it was great.  So once again I think this was an awesome "EXtra" for a book series.

3.

 

The Goddess Test series by Aimee Carter is one of my favorite series.  This is a short story I also got to read as an e-galley.  But it has since been published as part of a physical short story collection called The Goddess Legacy.  This one tells the story of Hera/Calliope.  And I really enjoyed it because you don't really like her in the overall book series, and this book gives you a bit of sympathy for her, even though I still don't agree with things she does.  

4.

 

I love the Splintered series by AG Howard, it got me interested in Alice in Wonderland, when it had never really been one of my favorite fairy tales.  And this is a short story that gives another side of the story, from Morpheus and Jeb's points of view, instead of just Alyssa's.

5.

 

I hadn't read any of the series since I got to read an e-galley of the very first one before it was published.  And then I saw I could get an e-galley of the 3rd in the series.  So, I checked the 2nd one out at the library, and downloaded this short story.  And this was a great prequel short story that got me back into what the plot and who the characters were.  And Roar is someone you just really love in the books, so it was fun to read his side of the story and find out what made him the way he was.

So, have you had a chance to read many of these short stories that go with novels or books series?  I could have done a separate list of ones that were kind of a waste of time, especially if I had to pay for them, but I try to keep things on here positive and recommend things I liked.

If you want, there are 2 days left to enter my 900 Bloglovin follower giveaway HERE, and there are only 22 entries so far, so you have a good chance!

 

 

Stacking the Shelves - April 20th, 2014

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.  It is a way for us to share the new books we have collected. A few things this week.  The only physical books were ones I bought, but that's okay I guess.

Physical books purchased:



So I had to buy Dorothy Must Die, because I had to give the ARC up to someone else at the bookstore where I work part time.  And I must have my own copy of it to get signed when I moderate the panel with the author in May.  The 2nd book I bought because I went to listen to the author, the Hungry Girl, Lisa Lillien at my bookstore this past week.  I wasn't able to meet her or get it signed unfortunately, because my mom's knee couldn't take the standing in line, and no matter how much I told her to go sit down while I stood in line, she wouldn't do it.  And the last one is a book I'd wanted for awhile.  I'm hoping that instead of taking a creative writing class (cost of that is too much right now), I can use that to help me get better at writing.

E-book purchased (only 99 cents!):

Normally I'd only do these types of books for free, but this one sounded pretty good, and 99 cents isn't too bad.

E-galley from Edelweiss:

I can't remember if I shared this when I first requested it, but I waited till after I'd read the 2nd book to actually download it, since it is only good for 60 days after download. Since I just finished Book 2 this past week, I went ahead and downloaded the e-galley of the third one this week.

Not much this week, but that's okay!  It's not like I will ever again in my life be able to say that I have nothing to read.  Plus, with BEA coming up, that'll be a bunch more books.  I did get notified of winning a book this week, and when I replied asking if they needed my address, they didn't reply, so I'm hoping it's really on its way.  It is one I was going to buy this week until I saw that I'd won it.  I'll let you know when I get it I guess.

So how about you? What books were added to your shelves, physical or e-reader, this week?

Review: No Place Like Oz (Dorothy Must Die 0.5) by Danielle Paige

When I saw this was available as an e-novella, I had to purchase it right away.  I bought it before I got ahold of the ARC of Dorothy Must Die, but just didn't get around to it until after I read it.  It was nice to read this because it did kind of answer some questions I had as I read Dorothy Must Die.  If you go back to my review that I liked to above, you can see what my questions were.

As it says, this is a prequel.  In No Place Like Oz we join Dorothy about 6 months I believe after she returned from Oz.  But when she gets back, she finds that she really, really misses Oz.  In fact, you kind of see a connection in the way she feels about Kansas compared to the way Amy Gumm felt about it in the first book.  It is just about time for Dorothy's birthday, and at the party she begins to feel like she misses Oz even more.  Her Uncle Henry and Auntie Em are having some issues with raising money with the farm these days, and so the cake doesn't turn out so great.  And when her best friend shows up, she sees that her tales of Oz may have lost her to other, more well-to-do girls in the town.  Dorothy gets upset at one of her gifts and runs to shut herself in her room.  Under her bed is a gift from Glinda!  Some bright red shoes.  When she puts them on, she makes a wish, and she is back in Oz.  Only, not alone.  Her aunt and uncle end up there as well.  And they are not happy to be there.  They want to get back to take care of the farm.  But they land right by the old house, and there is a message from Glinda that she is in trouble.  So Dorothy sets off on a journey to find and help Glinda.  While many years have passed in Oz compared to the short time that passed in Kansas, she is still able to find all her friends, as well as meet the Princess Ozma, and begin looking for Glinda.  But she gets a taste of magic, and loving the life she lives as a hero there, and gets really irritated about her aunt and uncle who just keep harping about going back.

It's a different Dorothy than we know from The Wizard of Oz, but that's okay.  A trip like she had would change anyone.  Another great read, that while it gives you an idea of what is to come, it doesn't tell us every detail leading up to Dorothy Must Die, and that is just done perfectly.  Read it before or after, you won't be disappointed either way.

Review: Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige

I was lucky enough to get to read an ARC of this that was sent to the Barnes and Noble where I work part time by HarperCollins.  I was extremely excited to read it because I had been hearing so much about it on other blogs, as well as from Epic Reads, and then the fact that I am supposed to be moderating a discussion panel with the author in May.  Unfortunately, I will not to get to keep the copy of the ARC, because I have to pass it along to the other librarian who will be helping me moderate the panel.  Guess I'll just have to buy an actual copy of it.  Not sure where that money is coming from at the moment, but I've got a month before the author will be visiting.  Anyway, on with my review!

If you haven't heard about this, as the title might give you a clue, Dorothy is now a bad guy.  She's come back to Oz and seems to have gone to the dark side.  She wants all the magic for herself, she's taken over Emerald City as a princess, and has enlisted her friends, the Tin-man, the Scarecrow, and the Lion as her advisers/security.  But as with other story re-tellings, we learn that some of the story may not be quite as it seemed.  Glinda the "good" witch has also become a bad guy, as one of Dorothy's friends.  The Tin Man is a bit different than pictured as he now has sharpened weapons as part of his tin suit.  The Scarecrow is a bit evil with his experiments that his brain wants him to do, many to only help himself.  And the Lion is pretty evil as well.  He takes the fear of others to increase his "courage".  The main character of this book however is not Dorothy.  It is Amy Gumm.  Amy also comes from Kansas, but has had a much different upbringing than Dorothy.  She lives in a trailer park with her mother.  Her mother who has emotional problems, as well as drug problems.  The kids at school are horribly mean to her, and when the popular girl, who is also pregnant, punches her at school, Amy gets kicked out.  So Amy walks home, seeing the skies get dark and stormy.  After a fight with her mother, who is leaving for a "tornado" party, the tornado does hit the trailer park, as you would expect from the old adage.  And Amy soon lands in Oz.  A much different looking Oz than she'd seen in the movie.  You see, Dorothy is mining all the magic from the land so that she can hoard it at the Emerald Palace for herself.  And taking the magic has made huge holes in the land, as well as turning it brown and gray, and dead looking.  She is met upon arrival by a very handsome boy with intriguing green eyes.  But he is very mysterious, and while he gives her the directions to follow the yellow brick road, he then disappears.  Amy sees an abandoned Munchkin village along the road, but all the Munchkins are out helping Glinda mine the magic.  One Munchkin ends up helping Amy on her travels.  Other creatures along the way are different than expected, such as the flying monkeys.  Which are now under Dorothy's command.

Amy must now decide what to do, and who to trust.  She will be arrested for trying to save a creature.  She will see a new friend be destroyed by Dorothy's minions.  So she knows Dorothy is not a good guy.  She is approached by the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked, which includes one green familiar looking witch named Mombi, another witch named Gert, and a witch named Glamora, who is a twin to Glinda.  Also, a boy named Nox, handsome in his evil looking way, but at first not a fan of Amy's.  They have said that Amy is the only one who can defeat Dorothy, because she has come from the same place, Kansas.  She will train with them, but still doesn't know if she can trust them.  Amy will infiltrate the palace as a servant, to see what she can learn to help with the plan.  While there she will find out just how evil the Lion, Scarecrow, and Tin Man really are now.  She will meet the Wizard, who is also back.  But can he be trusted either?  And back at the palace she will see the mysterious boy who greeted her, and also meet Ozma, the true princess of Oz.  She must decide who to trust, if Dorothy really must die as she's been told, and if she can really play a role in saving Oz from losing its magic.

A really fun, original read.  One thing that kept me hanging on every page was what would be incorporated from the original story/movie, and how it would be changed, or used to fit this story.  Now, I will admit that I've never read the books.  So of course Dorothy's shoes should be red in my mind.  This book talks about them being silvery.  Any of you who have read the book, is that true?  Or is it one way the author has made it her own story?  Questions I had about how old Dorothy would be in the story, and why she came back, etc.,  I am currently getting answered as I read the prequel There's No Place Like Oz.  I'm glad in a way that I waited to read the prequel until after, although as I've not finished it yet, I don't know that it would have ruined anything for me to read it before.  I'll let you know when I review it.  All that said, this is a great book, you need to get your hands on it.  And know, it will be a series, as the ending is a bit of a cliffhanger, and we're kind of left still not knowing who to trust for sure.